Growing minds: Planting the seeds for healthy living in youngsters

Jerry McCrea/The Star-LedgerNoreen Connolly, journalism teacher and an adviser to student gardeners at St. Benedict's Prep in Newark, stakes and ties developing tomato plants with Christopher Silva of Newark, a junior at St. Benedict's, and Dillon Weiss of South Orange, who graduated this year.

Students at St. Benedict's Preparatory School in Newark are tending to seeds and seedlings they planted this spring, a small group of them continuing their watering and staking duties even now -- during their summer break -- to ensure good harvests later this summer and into the fall.

Their duties at the school's new container garden are just one element of a farming and nutrition project begun this spring by journalism teacher Noreen Connolly and Tony Carnahan, the school's director of college guidance. The goal is to get students to think differently about what they eat.

Done in partnership with Brick City Urban Farms, Newark's two-year-old city gardening initiative, the project encourages picky eating on a somewhat higher order than the usual "I hate broccoli" sentiment shared by countless youngsters. Through readings, film screenings, field trips and the gardening, Connolly and Carnahan put fast food under a harsh spotlight and encourage healthier eating.

Connolly said the students have been more than willing to volunteer their time this summer to care for the plants.

"It shows that they got into it," she said.

Students plant their own vegetables in Newark

The plan is to sell some of the produce in the city in conjunction with Brick City Urban Farms, sell some to faculty members and give some to students to use at home.

"They're not going to be eating salad every day, but it's a step, it's a start," she said. "I think it's also great for them to see how real food is produced. And also maybe taste the difference."

St. Benedict's, a school for young men in grades seven to 12, welcomed the course as a part of its Spring Phase, in which students get out of the classroom to explore subject areas such as cooking and clowning (for ninth graders, the project is a hike on the Appalachian Trail).

The headmaster, Rev. Edwin Leahy, said the farming course was like nothing the school has offered over the past three decades.

"This has been special," he said. "It's exciting for me to watch, number one, the interest of the kids, what they've already learned."

He was especially impressed when one student told him about companion planting, the practice of growing certain plants together to confuse or deter insect predators (the group paired tomatoes with onions).

"For a bunch of kids in the city to be able to pick that stuff up ... " he said, nodding. "It also involves a commitment that keeps them working on it even when school is over."

St. Benedict's is not the only Newark school using a garden as a classroom. The Greater Newark Conservancy created and maintains outdoor "Living Labs," some of vegetables and herbs and some of flowers, at 10 of the city's public schools.

St. Philip's Academy on Central Avenue has a 4,500-square-foot rooftop garden that provides fodder for classes of all grade levels and supplies fresh produce to the cafeteria.

While Brick City Urban Farms has worked with students from Torchlight Academy at its site on Washington and Spruce streets, this is its first off-site project, according to owner and co-founder Lorraine Gibbons.

St. Benedict's, like Brick City, planted its vegetables and herbs in EarthBoxes, reusable containers designed to improve yields while conserving water (and keep plants out of soil that is potentially tainted). The students started some of the plants from seed, and are growing others from seedlings they obtained from Brick City and the Well-Sweep Herb Farm in Port Murray (they visited both).

When they first went to the Brick City farm, the plants they saw were tiny, said Idris Mitchell, 15 as he planted lettuce seeds in the school's garden. When they returned three weeks later, they had grown a lot. "It was shocking to see that, and all I could think of was that I want this to grow the same way," he said.

Connolly and Carnahan's program ended with the close of the school year, but continues unofficially now as students who live both on-campus and off visit the garden regularly to care for the plants. In addition to herbs, the group planted lettuce, onions, zucchini, hot and sweet peppers, eggplant, beans and tomatoes (varities including 'Brandywine,' 'Rutgers,' 'Big Boy' and 'Cherokee Purple').

In addition to planting and tending to the garden, the students planted trees in the city and attended a composting workshop.

They read and discussed "Chew on This: Everything You Don't Want to Know About Fast Food," by Charles Wilson and Eric Schlosser, the author of "Fast Food Nation" (Connolly said the book is like a "Fast Food Nation" geared to teenagers). They watched the documentaries "King Corn," "The Future of Food," and "Super Size Me," filmmaker Morgan Spurlock's experiment with an all-McDonald's diet. They also kept a log of the foods they ate, listing ingredients and numbers of calories.

Mike Oladipo, 17, said he used to eat at McDonald's regularly, ordering his usual Big Mac, fries and a Sprite. Now, he is asking his mom to buy more fresh, organic foods. While she has told him they are more expensive, she has been receptive and usually can find organic and other fresh foods at a local ShopRite, he said.

"I really got interested in it, learning about the way I was eating," he said. "I love McDonald's, but I learned what's really in it and how bad it can be if you eat it often."

Mitchell, who lives in Carteret, said that before this program, he frequently ate fast food. Now, he is paying more attention to what he eats, and trying to convince his family to eat fresher, more nutritious foods. He has even cooked a few meals using vegetables from the garden.

"I'm taking it one step at a time," he said. "I don't really see myself going into a totally healthy diet, but I'm going to stay away from fast food."

Christopher Silva, 15, said he has never been really big on fast food, but the class strengthened his commitment to fresh foods.

"You feel like it's yours," he said. "You did the work, you put your hands in the soil and planted the seeds, and you're going to eat what you do. It gives you a sense of pride and ownership."